4 December 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican health authorities are on "maximum alert" against the spread of the cholera epidemic currently ravaging Zimbabwe into Mozambique.
Health Minister Ivo Garrido told AIM on Thursday that teams have been dispatched to the provinces bordering on Zimbabwe (Gaza, Manica and Tete) to take charge of anti-cholera operations.
Garrido added that since cholera has also been reported from Malawi, health teams have gone to the areas bordering Malawi in Zambezia and Niassa provinces too.
The minister confirmed that Mozambique received an alert from the South African authorities, who tested the water in the Limpopo river and found it contaminated with cholera. The Limpopo forms the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa, and then flows through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean.
Garrido said instructions have gone to all health units near the Limpopo to take samples of the river water which will be tested for cholera.
The health ministry, he said, was closely monitoring the development of the epidemic in Zimbabwe, where at least 565 people have died in the outbreak. There is a constant flow of Zimbabweans over the border, but Garrido said he had not yet received any repoets of Zimbabweans in Mozambique diagnoswd with cholera.
However, a report in the independent daily "O Pais" on Thursday said that over the past week 169 cases of cholera have been diagnosed in Changara district in Tete, most of whom are Zimbabweans. Thanks to prompt treatment by the health service in Changara, none of these cases has resulted in death.
In October there was a cholera outbreak in Guro district, in Manica, which claimed 60 lives. Garrido told AIM this was now under control, but the problem could recur if the shortage of safe drinking water in Guro was not dealt with. Teams are currently digging boreholes in Guro, in an attempt to improve the water supply.
Garrido there had also been a few cases of cholera in Cuamba, in Niassa province, in Gurue and Alto Molucue in Zambezia, and "sporadically" in parts of Maputo province.
In Gaza province, the health teams mentioned by Garrido have visited Chicualacuala and Massengena districts which border on Zimbabwe, speaking with the local authorities, and coordinating the response to the cholera threat
"This is a situation which we regard as very delicate", said the Gaza chief doctor, Carla Palage, cited in Thursday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticiaas". The emergency cholera commission had been reactivated "and they are working on awareness campaigns among the residents about hygiene measures to prevent contamination'.
"We receive information on the situation everyday and we know the needs of every area", said Palage. "The mission assessing the two districts will inform us of any additional measures to be taken".
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